I Refuse To Fly In The Coach Section Of A Passenger Plane

     I decline to fly coach. I will only fly first class. Am I an elitist and snob? No, that is not the case. There are some solid practical factors that led to this decision. I am 73 years old. I am a relatively big man. The small and cramped seats in the coach section are torture for me. There is the requirement that a person in the coach section keeps the face mask on at all times. On a long flight, this can become torture. In first-class, the cabin crews are much more relaxed about wearing the face mask. One does not have to wear a face mask all the time.

   There is also the phenomenon of "the unruly passenger." Cabin crews on airline flights have been subject to violent assaults with injuries including, teeth knocked out, broken arms, broken jaws, and very serious injuries requiring hospitalization. These injuries come when they must restrain a violent passenger who has gotten out of control or break up fights. Believe it or not, a big cause of fights is a situation where one passenger reclines his or her chair all the way. The passenger sitting behind becomes enraged.

     Elena experienced "an unruly passenger" situation on her return flight from Honolulu. On the flight from SFO to Honolulu, Elena noticed a couple wearing distinctive orange clothing. There were no problems on the outgoing flight. Elena boarded the flight to fly back to SFO. She noticed the same couple with distinctive orange clothes. An announcement came over the intercom. The flight would be delayed due to "a problem with passengers."

    Cabin crew members approached the couple dressed in distinctive orange clothes. They instructed both to leave the plane. The woman protested that they had children back in San Francisco who would be left alone if they both could not fly. Three burly security guards appeared. The couple was taken off the plane.

     No explanation was given for the removal. The couple appeared to be quiet and wearing their masks. I told Elena that it appeared to me that something had happened before the couple boarded the plane that led to them being declared "unruly passengers."

   Elena started asking the great questions that she is famous for. How was the couple expected to make it back to San Francisco? If a passenger is ejected from a flight for being "an unruly passenger," some airlines put them on a blacklist. They are never allowed to fly again on that airline. (There is now pressure to create a nationwide unruly passenger list. A person designated as unruly would be banned from flying ever again.) Were the return tickets that the couple held voided? What if they did not have the money to buy tickets on another airline for the return trip to SFO? Who would pay for their hotel in Honolulu while they found new airline tickets? Elena made the somewhat humorous comment: "You cannot take a bus from Honolulu to San Francisco."

    Those of you who know well know that we have spent thousands of hours flying all over the world for decades. Travel used to be fun. Now it is an ordeal. Elena summarized the whole situation as a complete failure of the human spirit.